Introduction to Automated Macro Indentation Testing

Industrial infrastructure components undergo time-dependent material and property degradation associated with thermomechanical loads (temperature, pressures, dynamic loads) and operating environments (corrosive media, H2) which influences the structural integrity, and in rare scenarios lead to failure. The traditional approach has been to schedule periodic inspections to evaluate defect size, location and statistics which is represented as solid line in bath tub curve.

The emerging trend is to go beyond traditional risk-based inspection (RBI) to knowledge based inspection (KBI) which aims to understand mechanisms and use information to schedule the next inspection, represented by the dotted line in the bath tub curve. The benefit of this approach is an increase in plant availability factor as well as extended operational life beyond design limits.